Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Just a layman's guide to the Government Economic Transformation Program

I was not able to attend the ETP open house at the PWTC last week, I was told the place was full to the brim and some of my friends even called to tell me not to bother to come as even the car parks are fully occupied. Just wished the Open day is not for a day but rather say three days at least. It is after all revolutionary in terms of its level of details and interaction with Malaysians and even the PEMANDU indicates that it is actually the first of its kind in the world. One thing for sure is that previous Prime Ministers has not come up with this kind of program before. Very exciting stuff this.

The ETP is a program which will take us right up to to Vision 2020. Just hope that the BN Government has the clarity of purpose and the political will to see it through as it will benefit all Malaysians.

Above all these I hope the Government would make less use of acronyms, because the Malaysian people are not just students and professionals but also people with varying degree of education and very different background between the urbanised and the rural areas. Acronyms like GTP,NEM,NEAC,NKRA,SRI etc.etc will only confuse the message from the Government. Less acronyms is better.

Bring back English policy to assist transformation, says PAGEBy Lee Wei Lian September 28, 2010(MI)KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — English-language lobby group PAGE has urged the private sector to push for the reinstatement of the policy to teach science and mathematics in English, saying that it is crucial for the success of the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

PAGE chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim pointed out today that the decision to abolish the policy in July 2009 was done before any economic blueprint was in place.

“The ultra-nationalists were impatient and tiring for a decision on the policy, holding the government to ransom for Malay votes,” said Noor Azimah (picture) in a statement to the media. “As a result, Malaysia may soon live to regret the implications of such a decision unless measures are taken to dampen its negative effect of future global uncompetitiveness.”

She noted that the private sector was to drive the ETP and will require a skilled workforce but claimed most local graduates lack English proficiency and knowledge in science, technology and commerce.

“The domestic investment involved is tremendous and it is vital that the workforce, stemming from the quality of the education system in existence, must have the appropriate job skill sets for the jobs that are and will be available,” she said.

PAGE, which was established in May, has been among the most vocal groups on the policy of the teaching of science and mathematics in English, known as PPSMI in Malay. The decision to abolish PPSMI last year was widely seen as a political move to appease language nationalists and many have expressed concern that it would cause the standard of English in the country to further deteriorate and hurt the country’s competitiveness.

The ETP is one of the Najib administration’s initiatives aimed at roughly tripling gross national income in the next 10 years and is based on a slew of private sector-driven projects that would require private funds to the tune of US$266 billion (RM822 billion).

Yes Parents especially mothers knows best, listen to them, bring back the PPSMI, just as I mentioned before, the Government should and must have the intellectual clarity and the political will to do this. It is never too late to right a wrong. Its the right move to strengthen the Economic Transformation Programme further, do not be held back by the small group of Language Nationalists among us.